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August 2, 2015

5 Boca Museum Artworks on Flickr

We at the Boca Museum are certainly fans of the recent boom in photography. We have an Instagram page and upload images to Twitter, not to mention Facebook and Pinterest. In fact, we have expanded our photography policy to allow cellphone photos in our second-floor permanent collection galleries.

There are a few drawbacks to the avalanche of photos though, one of them being the credit lines that accompany images. When we print up any materials that feature an image, we always include a certain set of information about the piece. Of course, not every visitor to the museum has the time to be studiously copying down an artist’s name, the title of an artwork, the medium used, and so on.

To that end, we’d like to spotlight five of the artworks that appear often on social media, specifically Flickr, and fill in some blanks on who made what, when, and why. If you would like to learn more about an artwork you have seen or photographed at the museum, leave a comment below and we will tell you all about it!

Space Station by Julio Larraz

Credit Infrogmation / Flickr Creative Commons

Space Station by Julio Larraz

Julio Larraz was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1944. He created this sculpture out of painted bronze and it stands a whopping 17 ½ feet high. It is placed in the courtyard near our front door and was purchased by the Boca Museum with funding provided by anonymous donors and the Dr. and Mrs. John J. Mayers Foundation.

A lot of people see this and immediately think “teacups” because of the cups’ small size and the shape of the pot on the top. This is actually a stack of coffee cups with a coffee pot balanced precariously on top.

Larraz is addressing the historically unbalanced politics of Latin America, specifically, the coffee business. Using metaphor, he implies that all the little coffee cups – the workers – hold up the big pot – the owner – on coffee plantations and in coffee business.

Power is imbalanced and at any point, the cups could cause the pot to come crashing down.

Hoy es Hoy [Today is Today]by Javier Marin

Credit dancriss/Flickr Creative Commons

Hoy es Hoy [Today is Today] by Javier Marin

Javier Marin was born in Mexico in 1962. He created this magnificent sculpture in 2002 out of bronze, like Larraz, but he left it unpainted. This is another very large piece, it is almost 13 feet high, 8 feet in width, and 10 feet deep. It sits on the side of the museum that faces US-1 and was purchased by the Boca Museum with funds from our Collectors Forum group in addition to the Dr. and Mrs. John J. Mayers Foundation.

This sculpture does not depict just one woman’s face. Instead, it is a combination of multiple races: Mexican, Native American, and Asian.

Labirintite by Rabrama

Credit HeatherV.Howell/ Flickr Creative Commons

Labirintite by Rabarama

The Boca Museum doesn’t actually own Labirintite, it is on loan from Vecchiato Art Galleries in Padua, Italy. We’ve been lucky to have it since 2001. Rabarama is an Italian artist who was born in 1969 and she made this sculpture out of painted bronze. Paint doesn’t fare too well outdoors here in Boca because of the salt air. Because of that, we have had to sand and repaint this piece once already and are about to do it again. The first time, Rabarama visited the museum from Italy and did it herself!

The piece is five feet high by nine feet long and six feet deep. Rabarama covers all of her sculptures in patterns like this: mazes, puzzle pieces, numbers, and letters. These refer to her interest in genetics and DNA, basically what makes us up as people. The labyrinth on this one refers not only to the genetics that make up our bodies but also to the journey that each person takes in his or her own life – the experiences that make us up as people.

Celestial Presenceby Dorothy Gillespie

Credit KaufmanRossin/ Flickr Creative Commons

Celestial Presence by Dorothy Gillespie

Sadly, Dorothy Gillespie passed away last year at the age of 92. She had a very long, full life as an artist though. For instance, she created this polychromed hanging sculpture out of shaped, cut aluminum in 2007, at the age of 87! It is 25 feet high, 20 feet long, and 12 feet deep.

It has been hanging at the museum for six years and every year we have to take it down for hurricane season as it hangs so closely to our windows. There are more than 350 “starbursts” hanging here! This gift from the Dorothy Gillespie Foundation transforms both the inside and the outside of the museum into an elaborate fantasy of explosive, multi-colored movement.

Music Power II by Arman

Credit walkoutofhermind/Flickr Creative Commons

Music Power II by Arman

French/American artist Arman was born in Nice, France and lived from 1928 to 2005. He uses only his first name in deference to Vincent Van Gogh, who only signed his first name on paintings. Influenced heavily by the Dada movement, Arman made “accumulations” of objects like the violoncellos seen here.

Sliced, smashed, or burned musical instruments were one of his most recognizable subjects since the 1960s. This piece was created in 2002. As an amateur cellist and son of an antiques dealer, Arman was surrounded by music from a very young age. He gifted this sculpture to the Boca Museum himself.

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What is a CVV Code?

CVV2 is a security measure for credit cards. Since a CVV2 number is listed on your credit card, but is not stored anywhere, the only way to know the correct CVV2 number for your credit card is to physically have possession of the card itself. All VISA, Discover, MasterCard and American Express cards made in America in the past 5 years or so have a CVV2 number. However Diners Club does not use a security code.

How to find your CVV2 number:
On a VISA, Discover or MasterCard, please turn your card over and look in the signature strip. You will find (either the entire 16-digit string of your card number, OR just the last 4 digits), followed by a space, followed by a 3-digit number. That 3-digit number is your CVV2 number.(See below)

VISA, Discover & MasterCard

On American Express Cards, the CVV2 number is a 4-digit number that appears above the end of your card number. (See below)